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OPINION

Trump 'has surprised. He has entertained. And he hasn't started WWIII.'

Coming Sunday: The Enquirer asked a number of local residents – conservatives and liberals – to assess the early days of President Trump's term as he approaches the one-month mark Monday. Eight Greater Cincinnatians obliged with a wide range of viewpoints and also let us take photos of them with signs that summarized their views in no more than five words. They will appear Sunday in the Forum section and online at Cincinnati.com. For a sneak peak, here's Hyde Park resident Gil Spencer's contributions.

A couple of decades ago, when my father was the editor of the New York Daily News, he got a phone call from Donald Trump.

The Donald had a question. He wanted to know what the editor of a major daily newspaper thought about Donald J. Trump running for mayor of New York City.

Trump thanked the old man for his honest, unvarnished opinion and, after a few pleasantries, hung up.

For whatever reason, Trump decided not to run for mayor back then. But a couple of decades later he decided to run for something else. And when he did I doubt that he called any newspaper editors to ask their advice. What one of them wouldn’t have said, “President? President of what?”

But here we are. And I think he's doing fine.

He has surprised. He has entertained. And he hasn't started WWIII. Yet!

He has made unforced errors and rookie mistakes. But his nominees for Cabinet posts and the Supreme Court have been downright stellar, from the surprise of Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson at State to (my favorite) school-choice advocate Betsy DeVos at Education.

During his campaign, Trump reached out to inner-city blacks, asking them to take a chance on him. He pointed to their lousy schools and dangerous neighborhoods. "What do you have to lose?" he asked. It was a fair question.

So he won, and now he's driving Democrats and the entire media establishment batty. They say he's not a "normal" president. They're right. He isn't. He doesn't care if he offends them. He enjoys it. And when they take shots at him, he punches back – twice as hard.

My father died a few years ago, so he missed all this. Yes, he was a member in good standing of the mainstream media. But he was a tabloid guy. He hated the pretension and arrogance of some in the big-time, liberal media. And he actually liked some politicians, especially those who were tough, funny and human.